RealTracks Artist Bio: Brent Mason

Long acknowledged as Nashville's #1 guitarist, Brent Mason is a 12-time winner of the Academy of Country Music "Guitarist of the Year" award and a 2-time winner of the Country Music Association's "Musician of the Year" award. His awards also include a Grammy for "Best Country Instrumental Performance."

Turn on the radio, and you're more than likely to hear Brent Mason playing his guitar! He is one of the most recorded guitar players ever, appearing on thousands of recordings with top Country and Pop artists plus movie soundtracks, TV shows, and commercials.

Brent was a child prodigy on the guitar from the age of five years, and after graduating from high school he headed straight to Nashville to begin his professional career. It didn't take long for his outstanding talent to be recognized; one of his first recording credits was with George Jones, and then Chet Atkins discovered him and invited him to play on his "Stay Tuned" album. Brent has never looked back, to the point where it would be easier to list the top artists he HASN'T played with than those he HAS.

His effortless ability to move between Country, Rock, Pop, Jazz, classical, Latin, Swing, Blues,and Funk has made him the guitar player of choice for artists from Alan Jackson to The Chipmunks, to David Gates, to Trace Adkins to Natalie Cole, to Randy Travis, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Martina McBride, George Strait, Shanai Twain, Willy Nelson, Waylon Jennings and on and on. A look at his list of co-winners of the Grammy Award for "Best Country Instrumental Performance" - Brad Paisley, James Burton, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, Albert Lee, Redd Volkaert, and Steve Wariner for the song "Cluster Pluck" - affirms Brent's place in the ranks of all-time guitar greats.

Originally signed by Mercury Records for the release of his "Hot Wired" album, Brent chose the life of an A-list session musician over the rigors of touring. He released his second album, "Smokin' Section" with his brother Randy in 2006. He has also released a number of "how-to" guitar videos, and PG Music has released a special version of its "GuitarStar" guitar instruction software program, "GuitarStar - Brent Mason Country," that is dedicated exclusively to Brent's playing.